Tatting Tip: Which is the Right Side?

Wendy in MN asked, “I keep seeing instructions on patterns about turning the tatting to the frontside. How do I tell which side of tatting is the right side?”

Tatting is made up of half hitch knots, and the thing about half hitch knots is that when you string them together they make more half hitch knots on the other side. Therefore there is not a lot of difference between the two sides.

Take a look at these two pictures. They are the front and then the back side of the same chain of stitches.

Notice that in the back side, below, the middle stitches form half hitch knots that look just like the front side. It is only the ends that show any difference.

When you are looking at your project to find the right side, look at the ends and the picots. Again, the next two pictures are the two sides of the same chain of stitches.

The picots push the looped thread upward so that the back side looks like two half stitches together.

So when you are looking for the right way up in your tatting project, look at the ends and picots, and turn the full double stitches upwards.